Monday, February 28, 2011

Put One Foot in Front of the Other

There's a new planet? In our solar system? Have any of you heard about this? It's not like I'm a complete news junkie or anything, but how do you miss the possibility of a new planet? Well, ok, so it's not officially official yet, but geez.

Tyche is the proposed name for this new planet. It's supposed to be huge too. Something like four times the size of Jupiter. And far away. If the earth is 1 Astronomical Unit away from the sun, Tyche is estimated to be 15,000 AU's away. That's 1.4 x (10 to the 12th power), or 1,400,000,000,000 miles. It's a cold gaseous planet too. No wonder it took so long to find it.

I had to look up just who this Tyche (Fortuna for you Romans out there.) was. She was the goddess of fortune, chance, providence and fate. She is represented carrying a rudder for steering the affairs of the world, or with a ball for the unsteadiness of fortune, or with a horn of plenty. She governed good fortune and prosperity of cities. Each city venerated it's own version of Tyche.

So, as with so many things in those days, if your luck was running high you had someone to praise for it. Of course if your luck had run out you definitely had someone to blame. I found an Aesop fable that features Tyche. I got this directly from theoi.com. It seems she has grown weary of taking the blame for every misfortune.

"The Traveler and Tykhe (Fortune). A Traveler wearied from a long journey lay down, overcome with fatigue, on the very brink of a deep well. Just as he was about to fall into the water, Lady Tykhe (Fortune) it is said, appeared to him and waking him from his slumber thus addressed him : `Good Sir, pray wake up: for if you fall into the well, the blame will be thrown on me, and I shall get an ill name among mortals; for I find that men are sure to impute their calamities to me, however much by their own folly they have really brought them on themselves.' Everyone is more or less master of his own fate."

Dig that moral? Everyone is more or less master of his or her own fate. Aesop lived in the mid-sixth century BC. Something like 2650 years ago? Give or take? What book do you suppose he got that from? What website did he pull up on his iPhone? What? No printed books back then? No pocket computer? Huh. Seems ol' Aesop knew way back then what so many have forgotten today.

No one rules over us. No one controls us. Yes, yes I know - there are ups and downs in life; how we handle them, how we respond, is completely up to us.

We spend so much time wishing something would change. Hoping someone will set us on the right path. Thinking about losing weight, or joining that gym. Quitting smoking.

Well, it's up to us though, right? If you want change make it happen. Create a goal. Envision your result. Announce your intention to the universe. Make a plan. Take that first step. Put one foot in front of the other.

1 comment:

I think you and I are on a similar wavelength, Eric (see my "Meaning of Life" post, which I wrote before reading this). And I've always loved "Santa Claus is Comin' To Town" (especially the BurgerMeister MeisterBurger).